Blaze destroys pet store

A fire ripped through a well-known pet store in West Islip yesterday, destroying the building and killing all but four of the hundreds of animals inside.

Bill Niehoff, the co-owner of BTJ's Jungle Pets & Aquarium, looked defeated yesterday as he watched more than 30 years of work and memories reduced to rubble. The shop, on the north service road of Sunrise Highway, was a family business for decades, one he and his brothers Tom and John had run since the early '90s.

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